The Mullingar Diaries

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

Moving to another country was something that I had always dreamt of and it might also have been the thing I have dreamt of the most. I remember deciding that I wanted to live in England when I was 12. Back then I had never been to England before and my first time in United Kingdom was when I was 14 years old. I was a huge fan of Busted and my mom and I went to see Busted at Wembley in December of 2004, I think it was one of their last concerts really. I returned to England in the summer of 2005. This time I had decided that I wanted to go on a language course. It was in Bournemouth and it was for three weeks. It was the first time I had to travel alone too. Having only turned 15 the day before I had to leave everything was quite scary, but I managed and I had a really great time. I lived with the nicest family ever where we were about 10 students and I the only one from Denmark. Since that time I have been in London several times on vacation and my love has only grown for the country. As I have got older my dream about living in London has faded though and my love of for the countryside has grown on me. As much as I love London I don’t feel like living in the middle of it. My dad always used to talk about how he wanted to move to the countryside in Denmark and I always complained and said that I would never go with them. But here I am living in the countryside in Ireland.

I don’t know when my obsession with Ireland began, but as far as I am concerned it started about the time my obsession with England began. I don’t think I have spoken much about wanting to live in Ireland but that is probably because I had never been there and the first time I actually stood on Irish ground was the day I moved to Ireland.

Here’s the question: what do you do when you live in a foreign country and don’t know a soul?

I have come from having to take a shower to wanting to take a shower and the reason is simple – I all of a sudden have the time! On Friday I went to bed at 10 pm, because I simply couldn’t think of anything else to do. With that being said it is not because I am bored. In Denmark I would go to my grandparents’, to my brother’s, hang out with my parents, walk the dog and that is simply something I can’t do here. And with that I am going to say: THANK GOD FOR SKYPE!

With all these new things I discover and explore it prickles in my skin to tell somebody. Yesterday I spoke to my brother and his wife, my mom and dad and my grandparents and it really seems like they are just around the corner even though they are not. But even though I use a lot of time talking on Skype it doesn’t last as long as my visits would do so I have to think of something else to do.

Friday I stayed at The Cottage all day. I don’t think I even went outside for five minutes. Yesterday I went to Mullingar to find a pub where I could watch Manchester United vs. Stoke. I was planning on going to Danny Byrnes or Crossbar having read that they show Premier League games but I ended up at Con’s. It is an alright place but there weren’t many people, and the ones that were there were children and older people. I think I will try Danny Byrnes next Saturday. I gotta try some different pubs in order to find my favourite place and the place with the young and crazy people. After two pints of Guinness, a satisfying result but a less satisfying game I left the pub and found my bike and went home.

Yesterday I also dared to try the roundabouts and they really aren’t scary at all. With that said I still parked my bike at Tesco’s and walked to the pub because the traffic is crazy.

Traffic. That is one thing I don’t get. Mullingar is quite a small town but the streets are packed with cars. It seems like everyone has a car. You don’t really see many people on a bicycle and to be honest I don’t think a lot of them even have a bike. To me that is kind of weird because I have always had a bike and at some points I have even had two. Also it doesn’t seem like you can get a lock on your bike (you know that kind of lock that is attached to your bicycle). They use chains over here. Big motherfucking chains!

I have made my own conclusion though. I think people should leave their cars at home and use bicycles because it seems like they don’t know how to drive (or else they just don’t care) because there are LOADS of cars with dents and scratches.  Personally I would say that the cars in the North of Jutland in Denmark look much better and has fewer dents.

Enough about that.

When I got home I cooked. Made enough food to feed a party I think and then I went outside for a walk. And I tell you what! It is dark as shit out here but the sky was the prettiest I have seen in a long while. It almost felt like I could see all of the stars and way beyond them.

When I go out I make a list of things that I find kind of weird or different and yesterday the things I wrote down, apart from the missing bikers and the dents and scratches in the cars, were that I had noticed that they didn’t serve Magners over here. Being a very big fan of the cider and knowing it is Irish I found that strange. I however noticed that they have something called Bulmers, which looks very much like Magners. The etiquettes are the same the name is the only difference. In order to find out about the mystery of the missing Magners I contacted my best friend and specialist in online research, Google. And Google told me that Bulmers is in facts known as Magners worldwide but that they are sold as Bulmers in Ireland. I already know that there is a cider made in Hereford, England called Bulmers and it is not the same, trust me Magners taste better. But Google told me that the reason for the same name is in fact because Magners was once owned by H.P. Bulmers, the same company that owns the English Bulmers and did you know that H.P. Bulmer is owned by Heineken?

Another thing I found odd was that while I was watching Premier League at the pub the bartender was watching horse racing.  Who in a million years would choose that over football or soccer as they call it? (And I only thought it was Americans who called football for soccer)

I also wrote Tesco on my list, but I don’t remember why. I will have to come back to that. 

Anyway this was kind of long and it probably doesn’t seem like I do much and with that you have to remember that I am also studying for some hours every day.

Today it is raining and really windy so I think I will stay inside and just enjoy this Sunday with some good music and a film. Also I promised pictures of my crib. 

It is a nice place. I've got everything I need here. Behind the door is the toilet.

And last but not least. A picture of my bicycle!

And that was a shitty picture, sorry!

So this was a long entry. I hope everyone is doing well and all I can say is:

Come to Ireland, it really is great here!